Thursday, 31 July 2008

Opanin, what an extraordinary thing to say! You say, quote: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not in support of any of these wars and not one of the admirers of Bashir but it is about time we Africans stood up to the West that they cannot continue to control us even after independence." unquote.

Opanin, has it ever occurred to you that that mass murderer, Al Bashir, is a racist, who happens to be a black African: who despises his fellow black Africans from Darfur - simply because he regards them as inferior beings, on account of the fact that they are of a slightly darker hue, than himself?

Perhaps it escapes you that when it suits those buffoons in power in Khartoum, they remember that Sudan is located on the African continent?

That monster incredibly regards himself, a black African, as an "Arab" - when the "real" white Arabs of Arabia and North Africa, also regard those of his hue, as mere slaves: even as Omar Bashir and his henchmen in power in Khartoum, enslave and murder the black Africans of Sudan.

And they justify it, by calling it their "cultural tradition", not slavery! Their attitude is an affront to all black Africans - and the rest of humanity.

Those deceitful and crafty devils actually think they are clever: because they lie through their teeth to the rest of the world - on a daily basis!

The idea that you can even begin to think that we must unite with these barbarians: who literally spit on black Africans every blessed day, really is intolerable. Have you no pride in your own race?

If those buffoons who rule our continent, black Africa's so-called leaders, such as the ever-impervious President Thabo Mbeki (who sees no evil and hears no evil in Sudan and Zimbabwe, incredibly!), had any pride in themselves, they would have expelled Sudan from the AU and severed diplomatic relations with that nation of millions of deluded morons: black Africans, who actually think they are "Arabs" a long time ago.

Can you not see that they are killing our fellow black Africans in Darfur and parts of Southern Sudan, simply because they think they are inferior beings who can be killed at will like vermin, by the 'superior' "Arabs" of Sudan? Pure nonsense on bamboo stilts!

Just what has Western racism got to do with that, Opanin? Please keep Western racists out of this particular African tragedy, Opanin. For, Omar Bashir is in the same league as Adolf Hitler - and don't you ever forget that.

And concerned Africans like me, pray every day that the overwhelmed and exhausted freedom fighters of Dafur, will prevail, in the fighting with the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed, the armed "Arab" militia, which in reality is sponsored by the government of Sudan, and are more or less an integral part of its security apparatus.

They are in this fight alone, without any help from the rest of black Africa, with the exception of the Chadian regime - which itself is also a murderous regime, in many ways, sadly.

It is my hope and prayer that the Dufur freedom fighters will have the nous and the gumption, to start using car bombs to eliminate the monsters now in power in Khartoum, one by one.

And it is also my prayer that those freedom fighters have the wisdom to unite: and one fervently hopes that by some miracle, they will also acquire ground-to-air missiles to shoot down those deadly Sudanese air force planes that so terrorise the unarmed people of Darfur.

Who amongst black Africa's leaders, complains as those armed Sudanese military aircraft wreak such devastation in Darfu - turning the world of the innocent people of the region upside down, so completely?

Why should the government of Sudan and its agents be allowed to harm the people of Darfur, on a daily basis: destroying their villages and killing scores of them, with total impunity - as the rest of the world looks on?

And all that carnage occurs because the international community is afraid of violating Sudan's sovereignty. Unbelievable! During WW2, if those who bravely rejected appeasement had toadied to the evil Adolf Hitler, rather than resist and fight him, where would humankind be today?

As black Africans with abundant self-belief, we must never give succour to such racists and mass murderers, in our own continent: especially when they themselves too, are black Africans - even if they delude themselves that they are "Arabs" and not Africans.

And the time has come for it to be pointed out to the morons who rule the nations on our continent, that it is outrageous to make common cause with that little Adolf Hitler of Africa, Omar Bashir.

Why, do they not realise that were they to have had the misfortune to have been born in the western or southern parts of Sudan, Omar Bashir's regime, and its agents of death (on horseback and open-top four-wheel drive vehicles with mounted machine guns: to mow down the innocent in droves), the Janjaweed, would be murdering them and their kith and kin, at will, and with complete impunity: simply because of their hue?

Opanin, you must bow your head in shame for trying to use that cloak of African politically correct righteousness: the ignorant prejudice of the minority of white racists in the West, to hide your lack of fellow-feeling for the people of Darfur, whose lives are a daily battle of survival of unimaginable harshness, in the hell-holes that are the refugee camps, which they are now forced to seek shelter in, near the Chad/Sudanese border.

This African tragedy, one of such apocalyptic proportions, is the direct result of the evil state policy of ethnic cleansing, which the regime of Omar Bashir has deliberately adopted as a means to an end: the total elimination of Sudan's dark-skinned Africans from Sudanese territory.

Just wait and see what will happen when the good peope of Southern Sudan choose to become an independent nation, when the transition period after the settlement of the war in the southern part of Sudan, ends. Shame on you! Do you have no pride in your own race?

Stop blaming the West for an inexcusable pogrom, which is not happening in Europe or the Americas, but is being carried out on a daily basis, by a member nation of the AU, right on African soil, by black racists: who are deluded and stupid enough, to think they are "Arabs": and are therefore somehow 'superior' beings to all Africa's black population.

Omar Bashir deserves to be hung like a common criminal - just as that other mass murderer, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, was. And may he and his fellow mass murderers now in power in Sudan, be eliminated soon by car bomb attacks.

And when that finally happens, may they roast in the hottest part of hell, too! What monstrous perfidy to support such an evil monster - a fool who has the effrontery to despise black Africans on account of our dark hues.

The continued survival of his racist regime, is an affront to all black Africans. And it is shameful to try and give succour to these monsters.

Opanin, if you cannot, or are unwilling, to help the black Africans of Western and Southern Sudan, please don't compound their misery: by supporting that demonic ruler, Omar Bashir - and give comfort to his sickening; stupid; murderous; racist and monstrous regime, which commits such wanton acts of violence, against unarmed and defenceless women (raped continuously, sadly), children and their emasculated menfolk, at will.

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

If the remarks attributed to the CEO of Ghana Telecom, Mr. Dickson Oduro-Nyaning, in the http://www.ghanaweb.com/ general news web page of Monday, 28 July 2008 are true, then the time has come for those of us who love our homeland Ghana, to put aside diplomatic niceties in our choice of words: and speak harshly and bluntly to those in our ruling elite, whom it appears think this country is theirs to do as they please with - simply because they wield power, temporarily, today.

Yet, they are the Ghanaian political world's equivalent of mere tenants with a full-repair lease: now temporarily ensconced in the lap of luxury - and living it up, and enjoying the life of Riley at taxpayers' expense, in the people's property, the Osu Castle.

Why, have they never heard that wise and pithy Ghanaian saying: "No condition is permanent." ?

Let them telephone him and ask our former president Mr. Rawlings and his grasping wife, who are still in a state of shock that once upon a time, Ghanaians were brave enough to reject their party.

For, never did they think that one day, they too, would become ordinary people again. Hmm, life - yet, today, incredible though it might be too many, including the former first couple, they no longer have their hands permanently on the levers of power in our country." So, Oga New Patriotic Party (NPP), I beg, make you remember say, one fine day, you too fit go. Enobe so?"

Opanin Boateng, one still simply can't believe that Ghana Telecom's beleaguered CEO, was actually quoted correctly. For, if those were truly his words, then he has raised the ire of many patriotic Ghanaians indeed. Hmmm, enti Kwame Nkrumah Ghana, paaa, eni?

Why, does he not even have the nous to realize that he has merely been given a sop - and told he will be kept on: but in reality, will soon discover that after a decent interval has passed, he will be ruthlessly turfed out of his comfortable office: where he superintended the downward spiral of Ghana Telecom, in air-conditioned glory, apparently: according to his own astonishing words - if the report in ghanaweb.com is true?

Poor man. Yes, they are going to keep him on: but in reality, only temporarily - so as to ensure that he too, does not take a leaf from the book of the clever and stubborn management of the Agricultural Development Bank (ABD): who fought off the perfidious rulers of our nation, who had wanted to hand over a national asset, to too clever by half foreigners!

If he has not cottoned on to all that yet, then he is even more retarded than the most uncharitable of his critics, say he is!

Perhaps he ought to ask those who know the full shabby Ashanti Goldfields story, just where the clever; suave; and ever-respectable gentlemen, who delivered that now-defunct entity, to the even cleverer South Africans, are, today.

God, one is just so incensed by the arrogance, which some of our current leaders are showing - in what is, after all, the dying "lame-duck-days" of their nearly eight years of economic mismanagement of our country of such gargantuan proportions.

Just look at the almost criminal way they have bankrupted the Volta River Authority (VRA) - because of their refusal, a few years into their tenure, to listen to good advice from technocrats, to provide our country with power generating capacity regularly.

And all that Alice-in-Wonderland economic shambles, incredibly, has taken place on the back of "breathing-space-buying" debt relief: that totally unexpected windfall, handed to them by providence, at the beginning of their tenure.

Would such a golden opportunity have been missed by any serious and
well-intentioned regime? Would it not have laboured hard and taken advantage of such good fortune - to turn Ghana into a truly prosperous "Krabewhe": an African equivalent of the prosperous and egalitarian societies of Scandinavia?

Yet, what do we actually see? Do we not see today's unedifying spectacle; that smoke-and-mirrors success story, so-called: that most revolting spectacle; that incredibly painful and hellish reality, called Ghana?

So, like the clever pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, we are told that life has never been better for us!

Are we not living in a country in which every day we watch an African tragi-comedy: one in which a handful of super-wealthy dollar multi-zillionaires, regularly risk their matronly wives' lives - by playing Russian roulette and nooky-nooky, with pretty HIV/AIDS ridden pretty-young-things, on the make: on whom they shower expensive gifts, such as juicy government contracts; posh compact SUV's and luxury homes? Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!

Opanin Boateng, you and your ilk can bury your heads, as deeply in the sand, as you want.

But whatever you do, in ten years time, we shall all know just who today's philanderers and fornicators were - when their HIV/AIDS symptoms begin to show and they start dying off, one by one!

So let them continue to sleep with other men's wives and play nooky-nooky with over-perfumed spring chickens.

And these amoral creatures of the night even have the gall to say we all envy them: hmmm - as if we did not care more about our good names, than tainted riches. The cheeky sods!

So, sadly, in spite of all their new-found wealth, they live in perpetual fear of the twenty-three million Ghanaians: whom they have reduced to beggars - struggling impecunious souls trapped in the NPP hell-hole of today: the hell-hole nicknamed Ogyakrom - by 23 million witty and peace-loving beggars.

Opanin Boateng, yes, Ghana Telecom: "hmmm, 'massa', boyen nkomode! If the words attributed to him on ghanaweb.com's 28 July 2008 general news web page are true, then must we not wonder just why the masters of the universe now running Nkrumah's Ghana, picked Mr. Dickson Oduto-Nyaning to run GT?

Opanin Sarpong - do please try and outgrow that African neo-conservative ideologue's neo-colonialist straightjacket. Just go and "see things", to use local parlance, in Singapore and Malaysia - and see how state-owned enterprises, "papaabi", like Singapore Airlines and Proton Cars, which are world class corporate entities, are thriving as global players today: and of some considerable value.

And why, so? Because, Opanin Sarpong, they have honest and patriotic political leaders; a creative and honest business elite; and a disciplined society that values honest hard work, and integrity.

Just where in the capitalist world would someone with such a "loser-mentality" be picked to run any decent-sized company, like Ghana Telecom?

The uncharitable here, would simply say, that the litany of woes this well-paid buffoon enumerates, is the tally of his many failures as a corporate leader.

As any primary school child in this country would ask him, in jest: "Oga, na who cause am?"Heavens above!

Where in the civilized world, would a CEO who had a dismal record of overcoming everyday operational challenges, such as clearing goods, be tolerated, I ask?

Quote the buffoon and loser: "Even the banks, which have for sometime now turned down our requests for loans to clear goods at the ports and or to pay for vendor services, are now running to us and offering cheaper loans..." unquote.

Where did they drag him from to come and head Ghana Telecom, one wonders?

When the smooth-talking financial whizz-kids from Iroko breezed into town from London, with their wealthy and politically-well-connected local high net worth, fellow super-respectable-rogues, in tow, to sell this clueless apology of a leading African business executive, the idea of corporate bonds, just what did this well-educated moron think?

Why, did he believe that those UK investors who piled into those bonds would be anything but "rigid" over the payment of interest due them? They were buying them to get an income to live on too, like all of us, were they not?

Surely, he did not think they were buying the bonds as a charitable donation to serve as a lifeline for him and his lazy; incompetent; and unimaginative executive crowd: given a cushy sinecure by the super-ruthless tribal supremacist cabal - that greedy; amoral and clueless cabal, which has dominated the ruling party, thus far; to run this vital national asset?

Well, if even someone who did far more for mother Ghana like Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata is now languishing in jail, then Mr. Dickson Oduro-Nyaning and other traitors like him, can rest assured, that one fine day, when Ghanaians bring the 4th Republic to an abrupt end: and usher in the lily-white 5th Republic, he will pay for his crimes against Ghana and the ordinary people of this country, as sure as day follows night. What utter drivel!

If this is the mindset of its CEO, is it any wonder that GT has got itself into such a fine mess? Any businessman worth his salt who issues corporate bonds to raise capital in London, to the tune of some US$ 200 millions, for whatever reason, always has a repayment plan in place, does he not?

So what was the plan GT had in place, to meet its interest payments to the so-called "rigid" investors: who had been brave enough, from what we hear from the hapless GT CEO, to loan his company all those zillions? And how much in fees did Iroko charge for that monstrous disservice to GT?

The question Ghanaians ought to demand an answer to, from these inane individuals, is: just what plan did they have in place, if any, to ensure that interest payments on those corporate bonds, did not place an undue financial strain on the company's finances - and thus threaten its financial stability and very future? What a bloody nerve some of those in our ruling elite have.

And just to save face for such morons, Ghana is going to lose a vital state asset? How can such a national tragedy be allowed to occur? And how can we possibly allow such traitors to get away with such perfidy?

Like the hapless Mr. Dickson Oduro-Nyaning, the clueless regime, led by the masters of the universe who now run our nation (ruin, would probably be a more apt word to describe what they are doing to mother Ghana!), who once sought the wherewithal from a seedy Chinese hairdressing salon in the shabby backstreets of London to develop Nkrumah's Ghana with, must also now tell Ghanaians precisely what plan they too had in place, to meet the regular interest payments, to those wily overseas investors, who bought those sovereign bonds.

We demand to know all the facts - as it is clearly causing this regime of many clever fools, a great deal of trouble. Is that not the real reason why they are selling off valuable state assets like Ghana Telecom: and so cheaply too, for? Pure nonsense on bamboo stilts!

That they issued the US$750 million sovereign bonds without any repayment plan is such an outrage, they really deserve to be lined up and shot.

And because this clueless regime; one full of well-educated imbeciles, doesn't want to lose face, we are supposed to sell off all our vital state assets, built up over the years, by the blood, sweat and tears, of ordinary people - so that the plain and painful truth about the mess our economy has gotten into, can be hidden from the rest of the world?

And do they actually believe that the ugly fact that our little super-royal emperors, are in their birthday suits, is not blindingly obvious to the rest of humankind?

Ordinary Ghanaians can see an Emperor without any clothes on, when they see one: no matter what the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons choose to say over the airwaves of FM radio stations, across their nation.

And today, Ghanaians are being shown gross disrespect, by their leaders: who are adding insult to injury with their tiresome arrogance - when the chickens have finally come home to roost, exposing their foolishness in piling up yet more commercial debt!

Who but an imbecile would talk so negatively about his own stewardship? Just how many more Mr. Dickson Oduro-Nyanings, are ensconced in the corridors of power, in the state-owned sector of corporate Ghana, today, we wonder? Hmmm, Ghana - asem ebeba debi!

Saturday, 26 July 2008

My goodness - you really are a quick study! Your Joy FM news-file programme contributions today were a tad more au fait with the world of business, than many of your past contributions, on such issues. Bravo - well done, you!

Unfortunately, my brother, you seem to forget that politicians jailing others for causing financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state, no matter how driven they may be by unfathomable greed, are unlikely to do things that are flagrantly contrary to the Public Procurement Act.

So, in a very real sense, you miss the point in crediting them with good intentions, in this GT palaver: when you point to the fact that they are following all the public procurement rules - as evidence of their good intentions and proof that they are only acting in the national interest, in this matter.

The same smoke and mirrors takeover tactics, driven by the same principle of the 500,000 GBP payment request that the Anglogold board rejected for payment at their meeting in London, in the wake of the battle for Ashanti Goldfields that I told you about, is at work in this deal too, my brother: and in the end any kickbacks in this deal, will become public, in similar fashion, too: as sure as day follows night!

A wise fellow like you surely knows that the road to neo-conservative hell for ordinary Ghanaians and their homeland Ghana, is paved with very good intentions: those intentions being the private wealth creation of our public figures - now done in the most elegant and financially creative of ways possible, on the planet Earth?

Surely, you don't think that very clever politicians under whose tenure, high profile political opponents have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, after due process, for wilfully causing financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state, are ever likely to lay themselves open to similar treatment: were they to lose power in December 2008 - by letting mere mortals like us, see through their chicanery, in such deals, do you?

And have you forgotten that the Norwegian cement giant, Scancem, had a huge slush fund from which payments were made to some African leaders to buy them off and encourage them to sell vastly undervalued near-monopoly state-owned cement entities?

That "well-paid-at-public-expense" spin-doctor fellow, Mr. Kwarteng, talks glibly about their forays unto the piranha-infested waters of the international capital markets (hmm, and innocents abroad like that, too - super-clever fellows, who once tried to source zillions of dollars for Ghana's development, from a Chinese hairdressing salon, in the seedy backstreets of London!). Ah, ajah nyame - enti Kwame Nkrumah Ghana awiaye paa enia? Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!Is it not annoying that having got the benefits of debt relief, although neither he nor the rest of his crowd of greed-consumed political nerds, ever had the nous or the gumption to advocate for debt relief whiles they were in the political wilderness, they are now busy piling up yet more debt, for dubious reasons?

Whiles some of us waged what they probably derisively must have thought was a Quixotic fight throughout the 1990's, to have Africa's debt owed them, written off by the Western nations as well as the World Bank and the IMF, where were they, I ask?

Yet, today, they have the gall to pile up yet more of the very debt that got our country into such a financial mess in the first place, and was squeezing the very lifeblood out of our country - in the interminable interest payments we used to have to make in the days before debt-relief.

And as we speak the greedy crooks amongst them are also busy grabbing kickbacks in the process: from their share of the fat fees that their crony-capitalist pals in Ghana's financial services industry, are now generating from all that frenzied overseas capital markets activity, which "smooth" Mr. Kwarteng talks so proudly about. What perfidy!

The question you must get them to answer - and I do hope you will share their answer to you, with me, as a friend and fellow patriot - is: just what plans for meeting its interest payments, did GT have in place, when it's UK advisers, Iroko, talked them into the corporate bond idea?

Hmmm, and it will interest you to know that even Iroko too, is another erstwhile African financial basket case: which was spun off by its former Botswanan parent, because it was hemorrhaging cash badly - and threatening its parent group's financial stability!

And incidentally, you must also ask the masters of the universe in charge of our country today, just who in Ghana introduced that "too-clever-by-half " Iroko, to GT: and how much in fees they got for the US$ 200 millions GT corporate bond they issued in London on the beleaguered state-owned telecom company GT's behalf!

You must also ask them, precisely what plans the minister of finance also had, for our country to meet the interest payments on that irresponsible US$ 750 millions sovereign bond issue: and the amount of fees its sundry financial advisers pocketed from the hapless taxpayers' of mother Ghana, in that clever rip off too (the US$750 sovereign bond issue, i.e.).

And if Ghanaian taxpayers are paying for it, why should details about those particular interest payments and what plans were made for them, prior to us taking that disastrous step, be treated by those whom we elected to rule our nation (and who constantly boast about the "NEPAD" transparency and good governance they are practising!), as a state secret?

And perhaps you can also ask the greedy hypocrites amongst those who now rule us, the size of all the foreign currency kickbacks they have made thus far, from their new-found avenue for personal wealth creation by stealth - designed to build up their already stratospherically high personal net worth - their share in the massive fees their cronies in the Ghanaian financial services sector are getting for giving such incredibly bad and self-serving advice, to our elected leaders!

And finally, my dear friend and fellow patriot, as I told you, any savvy Vodafone shareholder with a modicum of financial shrewdness, would tell you that the recent buy-back by the management of Vodafone of a billion pounds worth of its own shares on the London stock exchange (the LSE), was a backward step - and not anything for anyone here to boast about!

Irate Vodafone shareholders in the UK, will tell you that in their view that amount of "dosh", would have been far better spent, paying dividends to its shareholders!

And if your sources haven't told you so yet, 3,500 top-up card resellers in the UK, out of a total of 70,000 disgruntled businesses, are temporarily boycotting Vodafone: which unilaterally cut their commissions without consulting them - a move that has led to loss of income for all those resellers, my dear friend!

Perhaps its a harbinger of things to come, in a GT under their stewardship? Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!
The best way forward for GT, in my view, is to recruit someone of Herbert Mensah or Alhaji Asuma Banda's calibre to be its MD, pay him or her a world class compensation package of several million dollars per annum, and give the workers a 10% stake in the company: to motivate them - with dividend payments paid into a special fund that is paid out periodically to them, as bonus, when they increase their productivity and help GT generate stellar profit margins!

And instead of selling it, the clueless management and board of GT ought to be summarily dismissed for getting the company into such a pickle, when they allowed super-greedy Ghanaian financial services Titans, driven by the allure of easy fees, to talk them into the corporate bond idea: without them first working out a precise plan of just how they were going to meet the interest payments on those corporate bonds.

Why should our country lose such a strategic asset, simply because of the ineptitude of the "square- pegs-in-round-holes" whom your friends in power appointed into office to run GT and to supervise it as board members?

In any case, as I have told you, I simply don't care what this regime of well-educated morons does any more.

When ordinary people finally bring the 4th Republic crashing down, to be replaced by a new 5th Republic, we shall simply go over all the deals this "regime-of-many-crooks" has done.m

And we shall take back every single sold-off and previously state-owned asset, which has the slightest whiff of corruption about it - and severely punish anyone who engaged in sharp practice and illegality, in any of those deals. Period.

My brother, I am pretty sanguine about Ghana's future. In the end, selfless, decent and honest people, will replace our myopic and self-serving political elite - and use our oil and natural gas revenues to transform our nation into Africa's equivalent of Scandinavia's egalitarian societies.

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Opanin Koku Anyidaho - I refer to your press release, which appeared in the general news section of http://www.ghanaweb.com/ of Wednesday, 23 July 2008, under the caption: "NDC: Arthur Kennedy’s Fallacious Statement."

May I very humbly point it out to you, that it would help you get your message across a great deal better, if you took more care with your punctuation? Do take a second look at what you have just written (or has been put out in your name, perhaps?), please!

And above all, always remember that it is not the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons, who will get Professor Mills elected this coming December - since they are likely to vote for your party's candidate for the presidency in December 2008: even if you were to put up the eighth wonder of the world, a newly-born 40 year-old baby, as your party's presidential candidate.

With the prospect of abundant oil and natural gas revenues to help transform Ghana into Africa's equivalent of Scandinavia's prosperous egalitarian societies, the independent-minded voters of Ghana, the "swing voters", are no longer prepared to tolerate those who are wont to continue leading our nation, as one that still worships at the "Cult-of-the-mediocre": because they themselves epitomise the mediocre!

And it is 'inconsequential' minutia, such as atrocious punctuation, which some will take cognisance of, in making up their minds in December 2008!

Finally, please take note, that independent-minded Ghanaians don't give a toss which party comes into power in December 2008 - since in their view there really is no difference between the two biggest political parties in Ghana: the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and your party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

If the newly-elected regime then proceeds in a business as usual " Make-we-too-chop-Ghana-small" fashion, to play fast and lose with Ghana's oil wealth, the ordinary people of Ghana, will move swiftly to bring the 4th Republic to an end. Period.

We shall then set up a new 5th Republic, in which only two political parties will be permitted by law, to operate in our homeland Ghana - so they can be funded by the Ghanaian nation-state.

This will be to obviate the need for our politicians to resort to accepting "kickbacks": as a former party chairperson of the ruling party once said our hypocrite-in-chief, our current leader, has apparently been doing at the seat of government, the Osu Castle!

And the only two parties permitted in Ghana by law in the new 5th Republc, will be from the traditional two political-traditions of our country: the neo-colonialist Danquah-Busia tradition, whose progeny is the NPP, which toadies to Westerners and the interests of their local lackeys; and the Nkrumaist tradition, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) which believes that the black African is very capable of managing his/her own affairs - and believes in self-reliance as the foundation for Ghanaian prosperity.

Your party, sadly, will have no place in the new 5th Republic - it being a creature of convenience: set up (according to the "bush telegraph!") with purloined state funds, with the sole purpose of ensuring the everlasting legal protection, of those who committed high treason on 31st December 1981.

So, Opanin, your party had better do better this time round, if it wins power again! Do stay blessed, my brother!

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

Monday, 21 July 2008

Mr. Boateng, it is a principle of mine never to dignify the unedifying - so I shall overlook the impertinence implied in the question you pose me.

I will also assume that you are a well-educated individual. On that basis, may I ask you if you actually do know what someone addicted to cocaine is like: in terms of his or her physical bearing, on a daily basis?

With respect, leave the pure nonsense on bamboo stilts; the filth that emanates from mindsets of uncouth illiteracy: the sheer vulgarity that springs from the minds of those uneducated buffoons: those "My-party-my tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons - and let them make such absurd allegations: since they know no better.

Drug addicts who happen to be addicted to cocaine, if you would care to look up the condition in any medical book (or even easier, do so online!), are simply incapable of even taking a short walk from their bedroom to their lavatory, without great and disoriented effort at undertaking that simple task.

I am no fan of the party that Nana Akufo-Addo leads, but I do count him and his family as family friends: going back more than seventy years - his late father being my late grandfather's lawyer: and I am not ashamed to say so in public, either

However, he and the people in his inner circle, do know that he and his party will not be getting my vote - ever: because in my view they toady to today's neo-colonialist vampires from the Western world - the greedy neo-conservatives who make up the ruling Establishments of the West.

I simply feel a sense of outrage that people should insult a decent chap like him, just for political purposes.

And it is the same sense of outrage I feel when people insult Professor Mills, for political reasons, too - because in my view he is a decent chap too.

Please, if you must insult others because you are addicted to it, at least restrict it to those stealing our nation's money - if you are the insulting type with no home training, that is!

And finally, may I point it out to you that I neither drink; smoke; "do" drugs nor lead a life of careless abandon.

I also don't much care for those who seek to take liberties with me: a complete stranger, unknown to them.

But even if you show no respect for others, surely you must show the world that at least you do actually respect yourself - by what you say or do in public? Please respect yourself, at least.

I do hope that you too do not suffer from the unfortunate inability of so many Ghanaians to speak or write decent English: which perhaps makes you wrongfully label someone as a cocaine addict - when he so clearly and patently is no such thing?

If you care to look up the meaning of the phrase cocaine addict in any medical dictionary, I dare say you will understand my point.

I do loathe the party he belongs to - but I also loathe those who just make wild allegations about others, whom they know nothing about!

And although I have not seen seen him for years now, since his party came to power after the December 2000 elections - nothing in his public speeches or his appearances on radio and television, shows a man who is a cocaine addict.

In my view, Nana Akufo Addo would have made a far better president than our current leader. And I had hoped, at the time he competed with him, that he would emerge as his party's flag bearer for the December 2000 elections instead of Mr. Kufuor.

The many missed historic opportunities to set new standards of public morality amongst our elected politicians in particular, and our political class in general, by our current president, is clear proof of that assertion!

The ruling party's time has now passed - and alas, Nana Akufo-Addo, sadly, is eight years too late, in the day! Mr. Boateng, afedia wube emua wanu anaa? Hmm, Ghana, ayeasem oo!
May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

This really is plumping the depths of appalling bad taste - and taking our nation's "unthinking-blind-partisanship" to ridiculous levels.

What, in heaven's name, has height got to do with outstanding leadership? Was Napoleon Bonaparte the tallest man of his era? Is Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy the tallest man in France today? Hmm, Awuradze, whatever next?

As someone with a little knowledge of human psychology, I can say with a fair bit of certainty, that precious few independent-minded voters (the so-called floating voters!), will be swayed by such disgraceful diatribe, Opanin.

Decent independent-minded folk, the type of voter the good and decent-minded Professor Mills ought to win over, to add to those like you (or are you perchance cleverly doing the NPP's "dirty" work for them?), who are already committed to voting for him, to enable him to win in December 2008, are getting increasingly sick and tired of the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons - who pollute our nation's public discourse, with such monstrosities.

Opanin, what would benefit the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and all the other political parties, most, would be for their supporters to offer them good advice - which will enable them win in December.

A few examples, Mr. "Fela -O-Fela" (hmm, Mr. "Al Omar Fedayeen", would probably be a more apt nickname for you, sir!): Get Professor Mills to publicly declare the personal net worth of his wife and himself - and state that he will do so again at the end of his tenure: and get all his ministers to do same too.

That, my brother, will put clear blue sea, between the good professor and all his opponents!

Ask him to tell Ghanaians that he will scrape the absurd new stars-and-eagles "gong" the current hypocrite-in-chief (Mr. Rawlings being the nation's number-two-hypocrite-in-chief!) has instituted, as soon as he is sworn into office.

Opanin Fela, instead of pouring such dreadful insults on your fellow human being, concentrate on telling Professor MIlls that he will be wise to promise Ghanaians that he will nationalise Ghana's oil and gas industries, and pay fair compensation to the foreign companies now drilling for oil off our shores: but that he will do so by issuing them with Ghanaian government sovereign bonds, not cash (afirese Ghanafuo enye nkwasiafuo!).

Let him promise us that under his regime, Ghana will seek 80/20 joint ventures in Ghana's favour, with the best-resourced of the state-owned Chinese and Indian oil companies - with them providing working capital upfront, till kingdom come, for a share in our oil bonanza: afirese Ghanafuo enye enkwasiafuo!

Please advice Professor Mills to promise the nation that he will never permit his dear young son Kofi to become a teenage hotel tycoon overnight - by using his father's influence to get a consortium of banks led by ones in which the Ghanaian nation-state has significant stakes in, to loan him millions and millions of US dollars.

Tell Professor Mills to promise us that he will take Ghana Telecom straight back from Vodafone (whom, as we speak, are being boycotted by over 50, 000 UK mobile phone recharge card sellers: because Vodafone has suddenly cut the size of their commissions: without any consultation whatsoever - thus leading to a loss of valuable income for those "resellers"!) - and prosecute Vodafone for buying off some of the greediest of Ghana's politicians: if that turns out to be the case, after the deal is gone over thoroughly: as a prelude to returning it back to its rightful owners, the good people of Ghana!

Do please tell the good professor that at his swearing in, he should tell the world that he intends to end the grand larceny of our political class, once and for all, by probing the previous regime thoroughly. And that he will make sure that every single politician who abused the trust of ordinary Ghanaians, during his or her tenure in office, is exposed.

You must entreat Professor Mills to tell the nation that he will not spare the crooks amongst our current leaders, who abused the people's trust so disgracefully, when they were voted into power by the good people of Ghana in 2004: and that he will make sure that every single one of them who is discovered to have dipped his hands into the public purse unlawfully, is tried and jailed - and that under no circumstances will he pardon such common criminals.

No, not when there are thousands of ordinary Ghanaians languishing in our ghastly and inhumane prisons, who are serving long jail terms for stealing domestic animals, out of desperation (although that, my brother, is no excuse - a thief being a thief: whether he lives in a chi-chi presidential palace or a hovel in a slum at the ever-filthy Agbogbloshie area of Accra!).

Instead of insulting Mr Akufo-Addo, please use your energies positively: by telling Professor Mills to tell Ghanaians that because Mrs. Rawlings had the gall to say she would no longer treat him, their party's presidential candidate, no less, and a man destined to be Ghana's next president, with kid gloves, he will no longer be consulting Mr. Rawlings day and night, as he had once said he would.

And why, you might ask, should he say so? Well, because he, Professor Mills, unlike so many Ghanaians who lack self belief and whose serf-mentality makes them worship people with light hues (now there you have it, my brother: the psychological reason for so many people's awe, of, and absurd obsession, with, Mr. Rawlings - and the reason for his tiresome arrogance in thinking he is smarter than all Ghanaians put together! Hmm, ayeasem oo - and what bloody effrontery, too!), does not lack self confidence, at all!

Ask him to go on and tell Mrs. Rawlings and her arrogant crowd, that because he, Professor Mills, is a proud black African with self-belief in abundance, and is not the the type of black African who is awed by people with light skins and Caucasian blood coursing through their veins, he therefore will not tolerate any lip from either her or her husband, when he becomes Ghana's next president, one bit.

And furthermore, that he will force both her and Mr. Rawlings into exile, if need be: if they don't leave the running of Ghana to him - whom the good people of Ghana, elected to rule them, in December 2008!

Opanin "Fella-O-Fela", if those who feel passionately about their parties and their presidential candidates gave such advice, they will find that it might help sway the fair-minded undecided voters: who are the ones who, in the final analysis, will decide who becomes Ghana's next president.

Bad-mannered insults never works in a nation such as ours - in which ordinary people instinctively shy away from the vulgar and uncouth.

Opanin, ordinary Ghanaians care about good manners - so please do be careful. Just belt up - if you cannot be civil! Be smart: out-think and outsmart your opponents. And above all, never descend into the gutter, my brother. Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Bravo, Enquirer - now get the big guns in. Call all the London-based newspapers (such as the Times of London; Guardian; Daily Telegraph; Daily Mail; and the Sun) asap: and break the story to them - and ask for their help in unravelling those behind Cleave & Company International Limited in the Channel Island of Jersey, for the denouement, in this shabby affair.

And whiles you are at it, please get Transparency International in on the act too - as they'll ferret out for sure, when all else fails, the rogues who are so busy brutally gang-raping Mother Ghana: from her front and back!

You must also talk to CAAT, who have an incredible network of fearless investigators (remember that UK political hot potato - the Saudi Arabian Al Yamamah arms deal?).

I know they concentrate on arms deals; but tell them this is Ghana's hour of need - and that unravelling this rip off, will help ensure that Ghanaian high net worth crooks, aren't elected to get their grubby little fingers on our oil wealth: which ordinary Ghanaians are determined will be used for the sole purpose, of turning Ghana, into Africa's equivalent, of Scandinavia's prosperous egalitarian societies!

And since this is a matter of corruption involving UK exports, inform HM Customs and the Metropolitan Police (New Scotland Yard) too - and ask them to investigate a possible case of massive over-invoicing that has resulted in a poor nation such as Ghana (where poor people die of malaria on a daily basis!) being taken for a huge ride by racketeers!

Remember how they interviewed even the UK's most powerful politicians about the Saudi Arabian Al Yamamah arms purchase deal?

Getting UK media; HM Customs; Scotland Yard; CAAT; and Transparency International involved, is your best bet - as you are unlikely to get very far yourselves in the UK, I am afraid - so go for it!

We must simply get to the bottom of this Cleave & Company International Limited "Jersey-palaver". Period. May God bless our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana! Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem o: asem ebaba debi ankasa!

Typical. How very much like Ghana's cowardly middle classes! Dr. Jonah, if those who opposed Adolf Hitler during WW2 had had such woolly-headed ideas, where would humankind have ended up?

The indictment of Omar Bashir, on the contrary, sends out a strong message to other African leaders, who might also think of carrying out ethnic cleansing, in the nations that they lead too.

It is the best news to come out of the entire UN system, since it was created in 1945!

The notion that we should tolerate a murderous buffoon, a dark-skinned African who insists that he is an "Arab" and has the effrontery to look down on his fellow human beings, who happen to be darker than himself, and is presiding over Africa's most brutal and inhumane regime, is outrageous.

His regime is actively carrying out a pogrom, even as we speak, in order to rid his nation of its black African citizens, and it is disgraceful in the extreme to ask others to tolerate such cruel rulers, for the sake of "stability" - and you lot ought to bow your heads in shame for holding such obnoxious views.

Would you have tolerated Adolf Hitler, for the same reasons you want us to tolerate this criminal - that mass murderer, the monster Omar Bashir? He and the regime he leads ought to have been thrown out of the AU ages ago - if black African leaders had any sense of pride in their own black race.

He is a dark-skinned buffoon who has the gall to look down on Africans of a darker hue - and would rather he was identified as an "Arab" than an African.

Omar Bashir and the murderous regime he leads are an affront to black Africans and the entire world - and the AU ought to do everything it can to help the UN arrest them and prosecute them for the many crimes against humanity their agents are actively carrying out in Darfur on a daily basis.

And they are cocking a snook at the world, and getting away with it, in the process - to add insult to injury. If you are unable or unwilling to help them, at least don't compound the pain and tragedy of the people of Darfur with your outrageous views of appeasement.

These are latter-day African Adolf Hitlers, if that bald fact hasn't dawned on you well-fed and well-paid lot, yet. There must be no appeasement whatsoever in dealing with the perpetrators: in the tragic circumstances of the pogrom we are witnessing in Darfur - ever!

Concerned people like me, are constantly praying that by some miracle, the freedom fighters fighting to protect the peoples of Darfur, will get hold of anti-aircraft misssiles and the type of improved road-side bombs developed as a weapon to fight armies of occupation around the globe - and enable them "car-bomb" those buffoons in Khartoum till they are all eliminated.

What perfidy to canvass support for those mass-murderers in Sudan - and for such spurious reasons, too. Shame on you spineless and supine hypocrites! Sheer nonsense on bamboo stilts!

Omar Bashir deserves to be hung like a common criminal - just like that other mass murderer of recent times, the cruel and heartless Saddam Hussein, was. Period.

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Since you have addressed me directly, I am compelled to respond, as a matter of courtesy, to you. I salute you, Janet - and may I humbly point it out you that www.helium.com, would be a perfect place to earn money from your brilliant writing?

Perhaps when you make money from your Helium articles you can also donate to any of Helium.com's non-profit partners, of your choice, if you are so minded.

I am afraid I tend to disagree with many Western liberals, amongst whom there often appears to be a recourse to rush to seek shelter in political correctness, whenever the issue of transparency and accountability are raised in our continent.

A thief stealing public funds in Washington DC, through the awarding of lucrative outsourcing defence contracts, to Establishment-crony-tycoon-types, who are profiting mightily from two brutal and national-energy-sapping foreign wars abroad, in Iraq and Afganistan - which are being borne casualty-wise, in the main, by the underpaid and often poorly-protected (in terms of armoured equipment) sons and daughters of ordinary American and UK families - is no different from a thief ensconced in a zillion-dollar presidential palace in an African capital, who raids the national treasury for self and family, on a regular basis.

Both must be equally held accountable by their people - for, accountability and transparency, have nothing to do with culture or race.

Every society must demand accountability and transparency from both individuals and corporations/NGO's - so don't think you should be diplomatic with those who use race and culture as a cloak to hide their chicanery, and to stop caring and committed Westerners like you from speaking out boldly, about dishonest Africans.

A thief is a thief everywhere on the planet Earth, no matter his or her skin colour. Period.

Throughout Africa today, ordinary people's greatest wish, is that their leaders are held accountable. And there is a realisation by the continent's political elite that the blatant Mobutu-style transfer of aid straight from the donor nations into their myriad overseas bank accounts, can no longer be a business-as-usual approach to their personal wealth creation.

Today, they are seeking more creative business models for that end - and a profitable route seems to be kickbacks from fees earned by sundry professional advisers from the privatisation of profitable state-owned entities in the strategic sectors of their economies.

Caring Western friends of Africa like your good selves, are right to demand accountability and transparency, from all those involved in the process of sustainable economic development of the continent: be they African politicians; or the many NGO's set up by Africans; and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.

For, in so doing, you are merely trying to ensure that poor Africans at the grassroots level, also get to benefit from sustainable development - and experience an improvement in their quality of life.

And you are also doing what pre-colonial traditional societies throughout the continent have always done, right from the beginning of time - and long before our paths crossed with Western civilisation: when the first Europeans ventured here.

In the distant past, long before our encounter with Western civilisation, Africans treasured honest stewardship, both at the individual and societal levels, as well as selflessness.

Today, there is an epidemic of get-rich-quick schemes on the internet, by all manner of African characters who no longer care about the good name of their families - and poor fools like Kofi Thompson are bombarded on a daily basis by "419" spam scams of one sort or the other: requesting me to join some imbecile and crook promising me, a complete stranger, millions of dollars to hijack some dormant account, in a non-existent bank with a glorified-sounding name.

Yet, poor old Kofi Thompson, is an old man from the old-African-traditional-school that believes in reward from honest endeavour, by the sweat of one's brow - and uneducated fools like us would rather starve than shame one's family by begging or stealing from others.

So you must not sound so apologetic when you touch on subjects like transparency, good governance and accountability, sister Janet. They are all universal human prerequisites for a fair society, and transcend culture or race. Truthfulness and decency are universal human virtues that are common to all races and cultures.

In my own native Ghana, for example, ordinary people have put our political class on notice that the wealth from our huge oil and natural gas deposits will be used solely for the purpose of transforming our homeland Ghana, into Africa's equivalent, of Scandinavia' s prosperous egalitarian societies.

We are united in our resolve - and our position is non-negotiable . We intend to ensure that what amounts to a windfall from Providence, is used for social transformation in Ghana: in the quickest possible time - and does not end up in the very deep pockets of our country's politically well-connected influence peddlars.

We have no intention of allowing a powerful few in our country, full of greedy ambitions, to repeat the tragedies of the oil-rich nations of the continent, in which, despite the availability of massive oil and natural gas revenues, there is still widespread poverty and underdevelopment

As regards the recent posting about sanitary pads for Zimbabwe, may I humbly suggest that you look up Barb Briggs of the www.nabuur.com Kenyan village of Kabondo - and ask her to help replicate their very successful sanitary pad project, in which the ladies of the village were taught to make good quality sanitary pads, from available local materials, in Zimbabwe too?

Andrius' and the Chief's idea that it be used as a way of building bridges across the political divide there, is brilliant.

Do stay blessed, all you dear souls. I shall continue to respond as and when I am addressed directly, as a matter of courtesy - but as I want to avoid the distress my bluntness might cause here, I shall continue to keep my distance: so that you can continue the important and good work you are engaged in, in the very friendly and brotherly cross-cultural community you have so successfully created.

I admire and respect all of you very much - but sadly, I am essentially a loner, as writers often are: it being a pretty lonely occupation. I feel much happier sticking to my daily conversations with my dear pet dogs; whom I can talk to frankly, without ever causing offence.

Keep up the good work, my dear brothers and sisters of the planet Earth's one human race.

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o. A pattern seems to be emerging of late. Our country is always dealing with offshore companies these days - whose ownership it is virtually impossible for anyone to trace.

And the "regime-crony-oligarchs" in the financial services industry, according to bush telegraph sources, are now the primary source of kickbacks in hard currency for the rogues amongst those who rule Nkrumah's Ghana, today.

Well, hopefully, dear reader, that outrageous nonsense on bamboo stilts, which this latest example of our rulers' playing fast and loose with the public purse, represents, will finally open the eyes of those loud-mouthed imbeciles, the : "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" fanatical party faithful!

Are they getting any of this juicy new pool of foreign currency kickback lolly? Probably not. Are they aware that they are just being fobbed off - merely being asked to make do with the anaemic old cedi as payment for their partisanship, from the current beneficiaries of the two-party dictatorship: both of whom alternate, taking turns to "chop mother Ghana small?"

Who, but the greediest morons amongst those who rule us today, dear reader, would believe that they could actually get away with giving Ghanaians the false impression that the Channel Islands, were known centres of excellence, in UK jewellery-making?

Well, at least a few of us do know that they certainly are centres of excellence, in the business of hiding the wealth of secretive high net worth individuals: and are a UK tax haven par excellence!

Perhaps our useless and supine parliament will demand from this regime, who the owners of that profiteering Channel Island jewellery company actually are?

Is that not the self-same area where those who are the real owners of Ghana International Airlines (GIA) are hiding their ownership of that inefficient and loss-making airline: through shell companies registered in that particular part of the UK? Hmm, Ghana - aye asem oo!

And for nearly the whole hour that he recently had the opportunity to interview a director of Databank, who also apparently wears another hat as a director of Ghana Telecom on television, someone often referred to as a "senior journalist", did not have the nous to ask him if his company, Databank, had had anything to do with Vodafone finding its way to the shores of Ghana!

And above all, why did he not try to elicit from that smug fat-cat tycoon, whether his firm was amongst Vodafone's Ghanaian advisers - and whether they had, at any time since their company was set up, ever received any payments from Vodafone or any company in which Vodafone has a major stake?

Yet, it is crucial that Ghanaians know if any financial services company here, has been paid "finder's fees" for making the opportunity to acquire Ghana Telecom, known to Vodafone!

Why did he not see the need to ask the Databank director, who it appears does sit on GT's board, whether there was any conflict of interest situation for him in his dual role of directorships of both companies, and if it is the case that Databak has had any share of the munificence, if any, which Vodafone has been spreading amongst local professional advisers?

This overrated hack's irritating fixation with the almost irrelevant "how much...is coming to Ghana, then..." simply blinded him to a possible serious felony having been committed by powerful people in the financial services industry!

But, as we all know, this is an industry that many regard as being very poorly regulated: in the many incestuous relationships between some regulators and the very industry players they are supposed to regulate.

It is a classic Byzantine Ghanaian network of cronies; old schoolmates; and sundry politically-well connected influence-peddling and ruthless oligarchs! Absolutely useless in its designated national role, in other words! Hmm Ghana - aye asem oo!

As we all know from the recent revelations in the Norwegian court case involving Scancem and a former employee of theirs, foreign multinationals pay massive kickbacks to African politicians to acquire state-owned companies in the most strategic industries here, for far less than their actual values.

A company similar to Ghana Telecom company in the UK; the EU; the US; Japan; or South Korea, would have cost Vodafone billions of dollars, to acquire! So the value placed on GT is far too low.

If clever foreigners want it, let them pay us at least US$7 billions for it - for, we do know that Vodafone was interested in taking over MTN's entire African operations: but balked at the US$ 50 billions asking price put on it (at the time when one of the two sons of the founder of the Reliance Group, Anil Ambani, the second richest man in India, and his brother Mukesh Ambani, were quarrelling over MTM: which Anil had wanted to acquire). Period.

The US$ 7 billions is what it is worth for ordinary people in Ghana - never mind what the so-called "analysts" tell us to the contrary. They, can stuff it! Adeni,yabre - haba!
So, as that hopeless rubber-stamp parliament of ours is now our last hope to scupper that outrageous GT deal, let parliament demand from the masters of the universe now in charge of our country, that they supply the legislature with a list of all the legal firms; accountancy firms; and the financial services companies, which have benefited from such privatisation deals.

And they must reveal just how much they have each earned, thus far: and above all, if they were paid in local currency or not; and if not whether any Bank of Ghana foreign exchange regulatons have been breached by those "oh-ever-so-respectable" sharks!

If any such regulations have been breached, ordinary Ghanaians hope that there will be swift prosecutions at the Fast Track High Courts: so they can go and cool their heels at Nsawam Prison - and provide some decent intellectual stimuli for the brilliant Tsatsu Ktsikata!

Ordinary Ghanaians demand to know the total amount of professional fees paid local professional advisers by the Vodafones of this world, thus far, since this most greedy of regimes came to power a little under eight years ago. Ditto fees they have earned from the Ghanaian nation-state in such deals, if any.

And fancy paying money to some foreign beauty to "facilitate" Ghana accessing the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funds from the US, dear reader.

Well, why don't we simply shut down our "super-expensive-to-run" diplomatic missions in the US: and give out a contract to the aforementioned middle-aged beauty, on the make (and apparently on the take, too!), to take care of our US interests, then, I ask?

Then, that way, the greediest and the most dishonest of our leaders can get kickbacks regularly from her and her narcissistic and super-materialistic husband: who apparently is said to have a direct line to God! Yehowaa, eeee - Ghana! Hmm, ayeasem oo! What perfidy!

We demand to know the treacherous stooges for neo-colonialism in our midst, whose unfathomable greed for money, drives them to lead foreign companies to the shores of Ghana, to reap where they have not sown: laying their grubby fat foreign fingers on our national assets, built up over the years, by the blood, sweat and tears of Ghanaian workers.

There are many ordinary people who are aware, today, of precisely where the greatest proportion of the hard currency kickbacks paid to our corrupt oligarchs, does come from!

Our leaders may think that ordinary Ghanaians are fools, and that they are being super clever in dreaming up various new wheezes to rip mother Ghana off.

However, ordinary people, do know that in the main, under this regime, privatisations are being driven by the greed for money (i.e. fat fees charged illegally in US dollars, one gathers from the grapevine!) of the myriad of professional advisers, whom the Vodafones of this world, use in taking over state-owned companies, in our country!

Just how much in fees, for example did the Ghanaian financial services sector firms, which were involved in that gargantuan folly, the US$ 750 millions sovereign bond issue of recent memory, earn?

And why should what they earned be a state secret, dear reader? Was it not taxpayers' money that went to them, for 'sundry services' to Ghana? Let our parliament take its oversight responsibilities over the executive, seriously for once - and find out for all Ghanaians just who are the big fish "chopping Ghana small" in "awuff" professional fees!

Ghanaian politicians are incredibly smart - they have now decided that its best to take the kickbacks in the smartest and most 'legitimate' ways possible. And they have decided that the fees charged by their cronies' financial services companies will be their preferred route to amassing mega wealth that they hitherto used to get directly from the Scancems of this world.

So let our supine non-performing minority parties in parliament demand to know who the owners of that Channel Island jewellery company are.

And let them also ask if Vodafone paid any financial services companies in Ghana, any fees, for making the sale of Ghana Telecom known to them.

It will not surprise me one bit, if it turned out that somehow a Ghanaian financial services company went to Vodafone unsolicited, and asked to act as professional advisers whiles showing them just how to structure their GT takeover bid.

Elsewhere, where regulators protect the public at large from such crookedness, this is a very serious crime - known as insider dealing: i.e. if employees or partners of such financial services companies who worked for Vodafone were also on the board of GT, or have acted, or are acting, as professional advisers, to GT too.

So the big question the largely clueless "regime-praise-singing" media here ought to be asking is: are any of the professional advisers of GT guilty of insider dealing; or was there any conflict of interest situation involving any of their employees on GT's board - and was that a material fact in helping Vodafone to clinch the GT takeover deal?

And if so, should ordinary Ghanaians not demand that the deal be cancelled forthwith? Hmm, Ghana, ayeasem oo!

Parliament must redeem itself in the eyes of ordinary people just this once, by asking all the above questions, as well as demanding to know the standing in the UK jewellery industry as a whole, of the Channel Island jewellery company that clearly so grossly overcharged us for what probably is just a consignment of gold-plated chi-chi rubbish. And it is all in such appalling bad taste, too! Nkruwasifuo!

Koseme! Anyemimeh menisana pone?Hmm, Ghana - awaa egh! Absolutely no taste: and no class, whatsoever! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

Thursday, 10 July 2008

Ohemaa, tu wa dwenimu, na da! The only way we can stop Ghana's oligarchs, whose unfathomable greed has ruined our nation steadily over the years since the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, is for ordinary people to bring the 4th Republic to an end - and usher in the new 5th Republic! Period.

The ordinary people of Ghana (as opposed to our grasping oligarchs: now masquerading as believers in democracy, when in reality they have foisted a two-party dictatorship on us!), will then put in place a new system, which will be designed to serve the interests of ordinary people and their nation. And that is the ethos which will also underpin the new 5th Republican Constitution.

It will be a document that will be drastically different from the 4th Republican Constitution: which was designed specifically to protect the interests of those whose treasonable actions, led to the demise of the 3rd Republic - and the political party they had the audacity to use state funds to create.

And although they think they have gotten away with their illegal actions of the 31st of December 1981, in time, the ordinary people of this potentially great nation, will definitely "do" a Pinochet on every single one of them, one fine day soon: and it will be "pay-back-time" big time!

And the fanatical "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" imbeciles of both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), can shout till the veins in their necks pop out: we will never compromise on meting out just punishment for the crimes against humanity, committed by the greediest and the most ruthless, of the leaderships of their two political parties: who have been leading the gang-rape of mother Ghana.

How can we possibly be expected to allow them to continue to get away with such an abominable and unspeakable crime against humanity, dear reader - a beastly crime which has been going on unceasingly right through their nearly sixteen years in power, in the "crook-dominated" 4th Republican era, in our homeland Ghana?

So let those politicians (from across the spectrum!), who are constantly cocking a snook at ordinary people, with their ongoing ruthless and unprincipled rip off of our nation, beware.

They must remember, when they make their arrogant and ugly noises claiming to believe in transparency and accountability, when they so clearly and patently don't, that ordinary people in Ghana, are not fools, and if I may use local parlance: let them always remember that: "No condition is permanent!"

Ohemaa, I boldly predict that one fine day in the not too distant future, ordinary people will finally rise up - and sweep away our greedy ruling oligarchy (which masquerades as a democracy although it is anything, but!): which has arrogated to itself the power to gang-rape mother Ghana, on a daily basis, at will, and with total impunity.

No fears, Ohemaa. We will not depend on the goodwill of foreigners in exploiting our oil and gas reserves. For, we will simply nationalise the whole of our oil and gas industries. Period.

And we will pay off all the private foreign companies from the West, such as the Tullow Oils, fair compensation (but we will issue them with Ghana government sovereign bonds, not cash - for we are neither morons nor imbeciles!) and send all the oil company executives and their ilk packing: back home to their racist countries.

Let them go home and look for slightly more honest work - not the ripping off of Africans-type of work they are currently engaged in!

And whiles we wait for that glorious hour to arrive, we will demand from the next crowd of highly-educated imbeciles who take over the reins of power from the current greedy and ruthless crowd, that mandatory laws are swiftly passed to require web-cams to be positioned at strategic locations on all oil rigs operating in the 200- mile economic zone within Ghana's territorial waters.

That way, ordinary Ghanaians can simply go online and monitor activities on those rigs on a 24/7 basis. And we can all make sure that no one is secretly shipping tanker-loads of oil out of our waters: as is said to go on elsewhere in the sub-region - and has even been known to occur here on occasion too!

And we shall employ the same perfectly legal tactics the clever Russians have used to wrestle control over their oil and gas deposits, back from the foreign carpetbaggers, who took advantage of Russia's temporary weakness after the death of communism, to grab some of the Russia's gas and oil fields!

The takeover of all our oil and gas fields are non-negotiable future facts on the ground - and some of us are even prepared to die to ensure that.

Ohemaa, Ghana's oil and gas wealth, unlike that of nations like Nigeria; Gabon; Chad; Equatorial Guinea; Congo Brazzaville; and Angola, will never be used to enrich the well-fed, fat-cat foreign shareholders, of Western oil companies such as the Tullow Oils and their local lackeys.

Why, is it not a fact that those well-paid local lackeys of the oil companies here have sold our birthright to foreigners for a song?

And do they not work day and night in air-conditioned glory (at our expense!) to make our nation fertile hunting grounds, for foreign carpetbaggers - whiles poor Ghanaian mothers see their children die from preventable health conditions?

As far as Ghana's patriots and ultra-nationalists are concerned our nation's oil wealth will be used for the sole purpose of transforming the Ghanaian nation-state into Africa's equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, in places like: Denmark; Sweden; Norway and Finland. Period.

We will never allow that wealth, mother nature's bountiful windfall profits reward for a long-suffering people (frequently led up the garden path, by dishonest regime, after dishonest regime), to be used to enrich the foreign shareholders of the Western oil companies operating here.

And why should we be expected to put up with a situation in which whiles those pampered souls go on living in suburban comfort in their home countries, we, are expected to stand idly by, as Ghanaian children die of the effects of malnutrition and malaria: simply because they come from poor families and live in a poor nation blessed with huge oil and natural gas deposits? No! Never!

So let those foreign oil companies whom our political and business elites have joined forces with to rip our nation off, understand, that their time will soon be up!

Our oil wealth will be used to clear up the mess created by the local stooges for neo-colonialism: who have held sway in our country ever since Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966 - and have turned our homeland Ghana into a version of hell on earth: in which the politically well-connected forever prosper, whiles ordinary people grow ever poorer.

So, today, alas, our nation has become a hell-hole, in which the politically well-connected grow ever-wealthier, whiles ordinary peoples' quality of life steadily deteriorates in inverse proportion to the obscene and stratospheric increase in the wealth of our "uber-high-net-worth" oligarchs - as millions of ordinary people, now reduced to penury, struggle habitually in a wearisome daily search for safe potable water, for their household needs.

Ohemaa, how can it be that things have been allowed to come to such a sorry pass for Ghana's Mobrowaa, to the extent that today, potable water has become a precious commodity - and is as valuable as gold: an outrageous situation that is allowing water-tanker owners too to reap where they have not sown.

No, Ohemaa, we have nothing to be grateful to those lackeys of neo-colonialism for, believe me. How can we be - when they have more or less sold our country to sundry white racists: who swoon around our country as if this was the last outpost and last stand of apartheid's cold war race-warriors?

Nkrumah's dream was to have a thriving state-led mixed economic model, which Singapore borrowed successfully from Nkrumah, to power far ahead of what has today become the world's most benign environment for exploitative neo-colonialists: post-Nkrumah Ghana.

The farsighted Nkrumah wanted to create an egalitarian society similar to that of the Scandinavian social model, in which a socially and environmentally responsible private sector, consisting of honest and caring capitalists - who serve, not loot, Ghana and Ghanaians - made up of a combination of local private entrepreneurs and principled and honest investors from the West (and elsewhere!), who would partner the Ghanaian nation-state to create Africa's own unique indigenous egalitarian social model.

That society which genuine and committed Nkrumaists still want to see developed here, will be similar to that found in Scandinavia - in which there is no discernible difference between the quality of life of the very rich and ordinary people.

So no bloody fears, Ohemaa. Genuine Nkrumaists will create that model of a sharing and caring society as a shining example for other African nations.

And even if some of us have to die in the process to help bring that about in a new 5th Republic, well, so be it, Obaapanin!

The key to creating that paradise on earth Ohemaa, is to nationalise our oil and gas industries, as quickly as we can - so that unlike the wholesale transfer overseas of the wealth from our gold deposits, the wealth from those gifts from Providence to ordinary Ghanaians (our oil and natural gas deposits!), stays in Ghana - to make up for their long years of suffering in Ogyakrom. Period.

And if any weak-kneed and faint-hearted individual or group, wants to blather on about the legal implications internationally, of such action, we will say to them: "Stuff the international community: they can go hang!"

Just where were they when our oligarchs were gang-raping mother Ghana: under the direction of the World bank and IMF ( both "teleguided" by super-wealthy neo-con ideologues foisting free market solutions on us: just to make our resources available to private corporations from the West)?

We will end their control of this important strategic national asset, by getting the best resourced and most technologically advanced of the state-owned Chinese and Russian oil and gas companies to replace them: and partner the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to tap those oil and gas deposits here - on a 80/20 split in favour of Ghana.

And the Chinese and Russian oil companies will be asked to fund the operations of the joint-venture in exchange for 20% stakes: to be paid for by issuing them Ghanaian sovereign bonds - as we are neither fools nor morons!

Even the youngest Nkrumaists in primary schools across our country, know that today nations with depositsof oil and natural gas, are becoming increasingly protective of those most valuable of strategic national assets - so why should we act as if anyone is doing us a favour drilling for oil, off our shores, I ask, Ohemaa?

"So, case closed, Ohemaa Caro: asem asaah!" - as we say in local parlance! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

Anyhow, why is The Insight newspaper so shocked and surprised by recent events? Our current leaders are very clever men and women, indeed.

Why, has The Insight forgotten that our hypocrite-in-chief started off at the beginning of his tenure, by telling ordinary Ghanaians that he was the one chosen by God to get Ghanaians to swallow the bitter pill of austerity - and that as a people, we would have learn to cut our coat according to the size of our cloth?

Well, that was when he and the other highly-educated morons had just taken over power (from yet another set of very clever and highly-educated morons), and hadn't the foggiest idea how they were going to run a more or less bankrupt national economy.

The magnitude of Ghana's external debt up till then, and the strain interest payments on that debt had on the economy, was of such a crippling nature that in effect they were more or less inheriting what amounted to a rolling empty national treasury.

(Incidentally, dear reader, and just as a matter of interest: our former military ruler, who cleverly morphed into a civilian politician, and became co-owner, with his better-half, of a whole political party set up with state funds - if the bush telegraph is to be believed - just to ensure his personal survival: and to protect the group interests of he and his henchmen, and who forever thereafter cut a daily dash in designer suits (in civvy street) happens to be Ghana's number two "hypocrite-in-chief"!)

But I digress. Hmm, amanfuo, before all those other well-connected Ghanaian morons (who also have their well-powdered noses in the "Greedy-Ghana-trough", and are busy "chopping Ghana small"), those asinine buffoons, the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" fanatical party political sycophants, and myrmidons, have the effrontery to ask why one dares to call our political elite morons, let me explain myself, dear reader.

Surely, one has to be a moron, to actually believe, as an African, that the Western neo-con ideologues who tele-guide the World Bank and the IMF from the corridors of power in Washington , London;, Frankfurt, and Tokyo, really have Ghana's long-term interests at heart?

Do those exploiters really want the good of our country, or are they here to seize golden (and juicy) free market opportunities for Western multinational corporations: by continuing to demand that moron-run nations like Ghana sell valuable state assets, such as Ghana Telecom - just to enable our leaders to make payment today, for senseless short-term needs, like the costs involved in that profligate outrage, that nonsense on bamboo stilts, that essay in extreme bad taste and vulgarityd known as the "national awards ceremony"?

And who can forget the idiocy of the leaders of a poor nation blowing millions of dollars on expensive luxury limousines for its Golden Jubilee Independence Day celebrations, and then promptly turning around and auctioning those self-same vehicles off to the selfsame oligarchs who are ruining ordinary people by their shameless and blatant profiteering in commerce and what little industry there is left, in Ghana today?

Are we not better off as a people, dear reader, spending scarce national resources instead, on worthwhile long-term projects, which will promote sustainable development today: and ensure tomorrow's common weal and national well-being?

And are there not countless beneficial long-term projects in Ghana today that are starved of vital funds, which only need a little seed money to benefit future generations of Ghanaians?

And if you ignore such important long-term projects to acquire outrageously expensive luxury items such a Gulfstream 11 presidential jet (bought on a lease with the "blood money" of Ghanaian peacekeeping troops, held in a New York bank account, as collateral, by the morons of yesteryear), what are you? Are you not a moron, I ask, dear reader?

And if in the midst of unimaginable poverty, you also borrow money from India today, to build a presidential palace complex, and then look elsewhere for more loans to purchase two presidential jets in one go, with those sundry items (jets and presidential jets) totalling more US$ 300 millions - to be paid for in part by future generations in what is a very poor developing nation in which there is endemic poverty, what exactly are you, dear reader? Not a moron?

(And for all those who are honest souls and have eyes to see with, let them see the stark evidence for themselves: the brutal and painful facts on the ground across the nation - in shattered lives led without hope, in oft-deprived and blighted rural communities, displaced by callous and arrogant foreign surface mining companies: which have little respect for our nation and its people, and to whom unfortunatley, the greedy ones amongst our leaders are often beholden.)

Of course, we must always ignore what those who constantly bandy statistics about say to the contrary: for even little primary school children being fed dodgy food on a daily basis, know perfectly well that those statistics actually don't make any difference in the lives of real people - who have experienced a steady deterioration in the quality of their individual lives and don't need any well-educated imbeciles to tell them anything to the contrary.

And if you choose to argue with the parents of those unfortunate children, that on the contrary, the food that is fed to their children is practically haute cuisine, are you not a moron, I ask, dear reader? Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem o. But I digress.

Why is The Insight newspaper so surprised by the obscenity of a politician - still in office - awarding himself the highest national award: and wasting its energies over it?

Why, does the newspaper not know that ordinary people view all the goings-on at the seat of power at the Osu Castle with total contempt - and with cynicism seldom seen in our country?

That contempt for our leaders amongst ordinary people, has been the direct result of the shocking and outrageous revelation - by no less a person than the ruling party's erstwhile chairperson - that our leaders were in fact engaged in the unlawful enterprise of collecting kickbacks from corporate Ghana.

That okro-mouthed personage then went on to reveal further, that his party had in fact also come up with an ingenious scheme: in which they would create today's New Patriotic Party (NPP) equivalent, of yesteryear's National Democratic Congress (NDC) super corporate cash-cow, the J. Stanley Owusu and Cos of the Rawlings era - and merrily reap awuff money, to enable them build a suitably big party war chest: to ensure their continued hold on power.

Alas, what incensed the okro-mouthed personage above all, was that the most powerful people dominating the party, the Nkruwasifuo tribal supremacists (who now have a such an iron grip on the ruling party), were not following the agreed script: and were rather holding on to the precious funds generated by the party hierarchy's clever scheme and keeping all that lovely lolly away from the grasping reach of the rest of the hungry and very angry top echelons of the party hierarchy.

What decency does The Insight possibly expect, from the tribal supremacist Nkruwasifuo with such appalling bad taste: those unsophisticated philistines who think they know the cost of everything in Ghana that is good under the African sun, but in reality know not the value of absolutely anything of lasting value, in the nation Nkrumah built and kept united in his day.

And was that unity not achieved at some considerable sacrifice and cost to himself, his nuclear and extended families, and his fellow Nzimas: all of whom were more or less ignored by Nkrumah for Mother Ghana's sake - so that all the people of this country would feel that they were one people: modern-day Africans with high asdpirations and a common destiny living in a united nation?

Yet, today, that national cohesiveness has now sadly been torn asunder and into shreds - by the greediest and most tribalistic cabal ever to hold power in Ghana: and in the most treasonable of fashions, possible, too.

And has The insight forgotten the excuse that was bandied about at a certain stage, that the billions of cedis being voted for by our supine and useless parliamentarians, was going to renovate the Osu Castle - so that the hypocrite-in-chief and his family could live there? Does he live there now, as we speak, dear reader?

What does the paper expect from a leader, whose best friend happens to be the most perfidious traditional ruler ever to be allowed to occupy a major and significant stool in this country, and who has the effrontery to think that he can secede from the Republic of Ghana by stealth (treasonable even to imagine such a thing: let alone try to achieve it somehow by bluster), through the backdoor - with the active connivance of the powerful and amoral rogues who now dominate the ruling party?

Surely, such a politician is clearly a man without any honour, as far as ordinary Ghanaians who value the unity of their country, are concerned? IfThe Insightwants to know why such a leader feels a need to honour himself let it consider all of the above.

And if any sychophantic fool wants to be facetious, and have the gall to ask why any ordinary person should have the boldness to take up his or her pen, and speak with such a sharp tongue about our current leaders, let them go and ask our hypocrite-in-chief, why a daughter of no less a man than Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, Ms. Fremaa Busia, a professional of the highest calibre, and an honourable public servant with unquestioned integrity, a patriot working for the Ghanaian nation-state in a very sensitive job at the highest reaches of our secret services, today lives literally in fear of her life.

Let them also ponder why, rather than report to the gilded torture-house and unlawful arsenal, which Australia House has apparently become (if the bush telegraph is to be believed), the former minister for national security, Francis Poku, chose to flee the country, instead.

And please note, dear reader, that that infamous luxury mansion, Australia House, had actually been meant as a going-away present, for the hero of June 4th, 1979. Unbelievable.

And, incredibly, yesteryear's other set of morons (who now also seek a return to power - presumably to enable them continue from where they left off "chopping Ghana small" prior to losing power in December 2000) - spent over 10 million US dollars to renovate Australia House, which they had planned, amazingly, to give to the hero of June 4th, 1979: as a departing gift - from a "grateful" nation.

Surely, if those who rescued him from certain death, by springing him from that evil place, now known as the BNI headquarters, at dawn, on 4th June, 1979, had had the slightest inkling that nearly twenty-one years hence, then, their hero would become a man used to living the life of Riley at the expense of ordinary Ghanaians, they would have balked at mixing up with him?

And if they had also had any inkling that our number two hypocrite-in-chief, would some day come to acquire such expensive tastes, and that he was actually planning to live in such obscene opulence (and even taking the trouble to visit the place regularly to ensure that the renovation of his luxurious retirement abode would be completed on schedule and at vast public expense), would they simply not have left him to his own devices in 1979? Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem o.

Let The Insight newspaper not waste its time on our hypocritical elite - but rather find a way of making the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) become a new third force in Ghanaian politics: and provide a new home for true and genuine Nkrumaists, and all other Progressives, in our homeland Ghana.

It is time Progressives followed the example of: the political parties, sundry newspapers, private television and radio stations, which are funded by the Western intelligence agencies through perfectly legal fronts.

That phenomenon is a global effort in which selected individuals and entities are provided with billions of dollars across the globe, by the secret services of the West, to run front private corporations and non-profit foundations, which funnel funds to help keep the stooges for neo-colonialism in power in nations in the developing world, such as Ghana.

And as is well known, in our own homeland Ghana, sections of our secret services are pouring trillions of old cedis (obtained from their share of this Western propaganda effort), into entities and organisations locally to serve the interests of the ruling Establishments of the West in our country - on behalf of the multinational corporations whose interests they ultimately serve.

For the information of The Insight, the Kofi Thompsons of this world too, would behappy to help the CJA, in this important work if approached.

Progressive forces in Ghana, ought to get close to anti-Western leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, asap - and get him to counter the West's continued financing of the stooges for neo-colonialism in our part of the world, who work day and night subverting our nation's vital national interests, in order to promote the strategic sub-Saharan interests of Western big-money.

We need to find backers from wherever they may be found, to fund and invest in the Progressive organisations, as well as committed and selfless individuals.

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

I have just literally discovered you - and gosh, you are so young: yet have such a brilliant mind! I write and farm in Ghana - and like to think I do original thinking, too.

And nothing irritates me more, than those whose activities have turned the continent of Africa, into a global superpower, in begging bowl diplomacy (both in individual terms, as well as at the nation-state level).

Years ago (in the early 2000's!), I used to write a column called "Young Entrepreneurs" in the Ghanaian newspaper, The Independent. And during that time, I came across so many brilliant and hardworking young Ghanaians - both male and female.

It is simply amazing the huge numbers of hardworking young people (with drive and an amazing sense of initiative!), doing incredibly creative things, to try and make an honest living for themselves, in our country.What many of them desperately need, is free broadband internet access.

Unfortunately, the morons who rule us, have just sold off a state-owned telecoms company.

Yet, that most valuable national asset in a 21st century ICT age, someday could easily have become the national instrument, which an imaginative regime would have used to empower the Ghanaian nation-state, to in turn empower its growing pool of bright young minds - thus enabling them to take their place under God's sun, in the competitive 21st century knowledge-based globalised world economy: by having subsidised and affordable mobile broadband internet access!

Short-term thinking; lack of foresight; zilch vision; and a predilection for accepting kickbacks from foreign carpetbagger-tycoons, on the lookout for undervalued state assets across Africa, to acquire (as revealed in the recent case in the law courts of Norway, at Oslo: involving the Norwegian cement giant, Scancem - which had a secret slush fund, it used to buy off African leaders, to get them to offload vastly under-valued state-owned cement factories, across the continent!), has led to the sale of Ghana Telecom; which in today's fast-changing technological world, could be such an important instrument for creative and imaginative national development, in my native Ghana.

How could any forward-thinking regime, even begin to think of selling a state-owned company that has the technology, to potentially locate and communicate with every single citizen in the land, whom the sensible modern African nation-state with the means to do so, issues with a free mobile phone with GPS technology built into it - so that state institutions and agencies, can interact directy, with each resident of Ghana on a daily basis, you might wonder?

Well, this is Ghana, Kevin - a nation ruled by very well-educated men and women, many of the most powerful of whom, are nothing more than (oh, ever-so-respectable and clever!) ace-hypocrites and plain daylight robbers!

And yet, unbelievably, Ghana, Kevin, will have the wherewithal, within the next five years - if our leaders then, are patriotic enough, as well as clever and strong-willed politically, to nationalise our burgeoning (nascent) oil and gas industry: which literally sits atop billions of barrels of confirmed and proven deposits of oil; and heaven knows what quantities of cubic metres, of natural gas too!

Nationalising that industry (and paying fair compensation to the foreigners now dominating the industry, naturally!) will be the only way of ensuring that the tragedies of endemic poverty amidst national abundance, in nations like Chad; Equatorial Guinea; Nigeria; Angola; and Congo Brazzaville, is not repeated in Ghana.

In those sadly benighted nations, it is only the politically well-connected and educated urban elites, and foreign oil companies (as well as thousands of sundry carpetbagger-foreign adventurers!), who have been the only beneficiaries of revenues from their oil and natural gas industries!

But ordinary Ghanaians have a quiet and steely determination that democracy will not be allowed to be used by our super-clever (at ripping our country off, regularly!) political and business elites, as a convenient cloak, to enable them to legally hijack the benefits of the wealth from our new-found oil and natural gas deposits.

The Ghanaian people (and, I mean all of them, without exception!) and their nation, not foreign corporations and their well-fed, and fat-cat shareholders, will be the only beneficiaries of the wealth from Ghana's oil and gas deposits! Period.

Ordinary people are going to make sure that that wealth is used to transform Ghanaian society, into Africa's equivalent, of Scandinavia's egalitarian societies!

But I digress, Kevin - would any regime that did creative-thinking, and was interested in creating an enterprise culture amongst the next generation, not think of using a state-owned telecoms company, such as Ghana Telecom, to provide subsidised and virtually free broadband Internet access, to the populace at large: as a means of growing the SME sector - by the provision, by the state, of this vital technological tool as a window to the world, for the broad masses of Ghanaians?

And would that not enable millions of mobile phone owners in this nation of hardworking and ambitious individuals (without opportunity!), to use the world wide web to help them trade their way out of poverty?

Traditionally, our pre-colonial societies frowned on begging - and there is no need really for any African today, to have to beg anyone in the developed world.

We have been blessed by nature in my part of Africa, for example - and we have all around us, everything we need to enable us lead sustainable lives: that are of the best quality and comparable to that found in other well-led and well-run societies, elsewhere, right across the planet Earth .

A key missing link is free access to the "web 2.0" online world, for ordinary people - something which will provide young people with an opportunity to sell their products and services to buyers from around the world.

I'd like to share ideas with you - as you seem to strike a cord in me! Do Google: ghanapolitics. And if you feel like the way I think, after reading some of my articles, do get in touch: peakofithompson@yahoo.co.uk

We could also "googletalk", if you want - as its always nice to hear what people actually sound like! Somehow, of all the "thinkers" I have come across lately (literally stumbled upon your "world", by accident!), you seem the most "human" and approachable! Stay blessed, you brilliant young mind!

Best wishes,

Kofi.

PS As I have virtually no formal education, I admire original thinking and thinkers, a great deal - hence this missive to you!